Customs officers arrested in drug raids

Two customs officers have been arrested as part of a major investigation into drug smuggling into Australia. The Justice Minister Jason Clare says there is no place for corruption in law enforcement agencies and corrupt officers will be hunted down. He says one customs officer and three associates were arrested this week. A second officer was arrested in August.

Transcript

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ELEANOR HALL: We begin with the crackdown on corruption in Australia's customs service. Two customs officers and a quarantine officer have now been arrested as part of a major investigation of drug smuggling into Australia.

As the arrests continue, the Justice Minister Jason Clare this morning announced an overhaul of the customs service, declaring that there is no place for corruption in law enforcement agencies and promising to hunt down corrupt officers.

The Minister said three distinguished Australians, including the former royal commissioner James Wood, will sit on a new Customs Reform Board.

Brendan Trembath begins our coverage.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: One of the customs officers was arrested in raids across Sydney on Monday, along with three associates. The second officer was arrested several months ago.

The Justice Minister Jason Clare says further arrests are possible.

JASON CLARE: The overwhelming majority of our law enforcement officers are good, honest, hard-working people. But we can't be nae. There will always be people that are tempted, there will always be the risk that organised criminals will target law enforcement officers, there's always the risk that our law enforcement officers could end up working for the crooks.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: He's warned that corrupt officers will be caught.

JASON CLARE: If you're a corrupt officer you can expect to get caught. I'm serious about this. There is no place for corruption, whether it's in customs or in the Federal Police or anywhere else and if you're corrupt, we will hunt you down and lock you up.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service is in damage control. The acting chief executive officer is Michael Pezzullo.

MICHAEL PEZZULLO: This morning 5,000 hard-working, professional and committed officers of the customs and border protection service are as disappointed as I am.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: He might be disappointed but is not surprised.

MICHAEL PEZZULLO: I am so nae as to think that criminal elements will not attempt to penetrate this service, its systems and its staff.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: The acting customs chief has declined to say if any staff have been sacked. Details of the arrests and the broader investigation have only been revealed today because a suppression order imposed by a court in Victoria has been lifted.

Police allege corrupt customs officers helped import 10 kilograms of pseudoephedrine through Sydney Airport in June 2009 and May 2010.

The Australian Federal Police commissioner Tony Negus.

TONY NEGUS: Certainly what has been alleged before the court so far is that the customs officers involved in this would meet couriers off a plane, they would then walk them through the primary line of customs and then out into the awaiting hall.

So they would facilitate their entry through what would be the normal checks and the normal law enforcement processes that everyone goes through when they enter this country.

So that's how they were alleged to have been facilitating the imports.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: A new Customs Reform Board will report directly to the Justice Minister. Mr Clare says the members include the former royal commissioner James Wood.

JASON CLARE: In the case of Justice Wood, you've got Australia's best corruption hunter, the man who was the architect of corruption reforms here in New South Wales, the best of the best, and that's why I've appointed him to this job.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: The Minister has backed away from calls for a royal commission. He says an existing watchdog, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, already has royal commission type powers.

JASON CLARE: They've got the powers to coerce people to give evidence, to hold hearings, to tap phones, to conduct digital and physical surveillance. They also have the power to seek advice from the general public to hold hearings.

They've got all of those powers already. What I've done is identify the reforms that Justice Wood recommended in the New South Wales Police Royal Commission, and implement them here at a Commonwealth level.

The Coalition's customs spokesman Michael Keenan told AM the Government has failed.

MICHAEL KEENAN: The truth is that since the Labor Party came to office, they have savaged customs' budget, and they've reduced the number of personnel in customs, and that has allowed organised crime to infiltrate the agency.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Mr Clare says when Labor came to government there were five people in the integrity branch in customs and there are now 42.